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Primary Documents - British Government Reaction to Sir Roger Casement's Conviction of Treason, 29 June 1916

Reproduced below is the
reaction of the British government - given by Lord Robert Cecil - to the
conviction on 29 June 1916 of
Sir Roger
Casement on grounds of treason.

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In his statement Cecil
argued that Casement was patently guilty of the charge of inciting Irishmen
to mount an armed uprising against the British government. He further
stated that there were no reasonable grounds for clemency in Casement's
situation.

Click here
to read the speech given in court by Casement following his conviction.

Official British
Government Statement by Lord Robert Cecil on the Conviction of Sir Roger
Casement, 29 June 1916

No doubt of Casement's
guilt exists. No one doubts that the court and jury arrived at the
right verdict.

The only ground for a
reprieve would be political expediency, a difficult ground to put forward in
this country. This country never could strain the law to punish a man
for the same reason that it could not strain the law to let one off.

The Irish rebellion began
with the murder of unarmed people, both soldiers and police. No
grievance justified it, and it was purely a political movement organized by
a small section of Irish people who still hate England and were assisted by
Germany.

There was and is in this
country the greatest possible indignation against these people. There
is no doubt that Casement did everything possible to assist this rebellion
in cooperation with the Germans. There can be no doubt that he was
moved by enmity for this country.

The contention that he
landed in Ireland for the purpose of preventing the rebellion is
demonstrably false. No such assertion was made by counsel at the
trial.

Casement was much more
malignant and hostile to this country than were the leaders of the rising,
who were caught with arms in their hands.

He visited military prisons
in Germany with the intention of persuading Irish soldiers to throw off
their allegiance. All sorts of promises were made for the improvement
of the conditions of these men to induce them to join the Irish legion.

An enormous majority thus
approached refused and thereafter were subjected to increased hardships by
the Germans. From among these Irish soldiers a number have since been
repatriated as hopeless invalids, and they subsequently died. They
looked upon Casement as their murderer.

Nor is there any ground,
public or private, so far as we know, which can be quoted in mitigation of
Casement's crime, and I do not think any Government doing its duty could
interfere with the sentence which has been passed on him.